Calgary-based Korite is a 35-year-old company, but the foundation for its business was laid 70 million years ago.

It was then — during the Late Cretaceous period when southern Alberta was covered by the warm, shallow Bearpaw Sea — that ancient rivers flowing from the west carried deposits of clay and sediment that settled onto the sea floor. The resulting rock formation, called the Bearpaw Formation, created the perfect conditions for the fossilization of marine life, particularly the mollusk-like creatures called ammonites that the area was thick with at the time.

Fossilized ammonites can be found in several places around the globe today, but — fortunately for Korite — conditions all those millions of years ago in Alberta were unique. While no one knows exactly why, in Alberta the shelled creatures didn’t just fossilize, they transformed into brilliant stones containing all the colours of the rainbow.

“It’s only here, in a small little area around Lethbridge, Alta., that the shell was preserved and turned into a gemstone,” says Jay Maull, president of Korite. “It’s the rarest gemstone in the world.”

That gemstone, called ammolite, is in demand among jewelry buyers and collectors all around the world — though it certainly isn’t as well known as Alberta’s more famous export, oil. However, Maull, who — along with a handful of other Calgary investors — purchased Korite in August 2015 with the goal of raising the profile of ammolite and pursuing market growth globally, is determined to change that.

“We knew that there was a lot of market that hadn’t even been touched yet,” Maull says. “We had big plans to grow the company — and we knew we could do it.”

Since then, in a nondescript Calgary office building where the company’s highest quality ammolite samples are cut, polished and set, the executives at Korite have been working on their market growth strategy. They recently completed a significant expansion of their mine south of Lethbridge, growing it in size from two to eight acres. The move should allow Korite to increase its current annual production of ammolite from six million carats in 2016 to eight million carats in 2017.

The company also recently signed a deal with a Chinese distributor that will help it aggressively market its ammolite jewelry in that country. Ammolite has long had special appeal in China, thanks to its recognition by Feng Shui masters who believe the gem’s many colours signify good luck and prosperity.

“We also see the United States as a large growth market, and we haven’t touched India yet, which is a massive market as well,” Maull says. “We get calls from India all the time, so we’re going to have to go there and promote the stone there.”

The Korite team is also working to raise the profile of their multi-coloured gem here at home. The company has signed a three-year deal to sponsor the Calgary Stampede Royalty and was recently selected as the official jewelry licensee for Canada’s 150th birthday. Korite has designed 21 collectible keepsakes for the occasion that will soon be available in retail stores, as well as an official lapel pin that will be worn by government officials and foreign dignitaries during the celebrations.

Jim Wells/Postmedia News

The ammolite jewelry Korite designs ranges in price from $100 to $100,000, and can be purchased everywhere from mall jewelry stores to tourist shops in Banff to The Shopping Channel. It is also sold on cruise ships and in Caribbean holiday ports, where the stone’s deep blues, greens and reds remind tourists of tropical seas and sunsets.

But Maull says here in Alberta, many people aren’t aware of the gem or its local significance. While the company has 280 employees worldwide (including 55 in Calgary and 25 in Lethbridge), it flies somewhat under the radar locally.

So, too, does its fossil sales division, Canada Fossils. Korite often uncovers the remains of other fossilized creatures — sometimes even dinosaurs — during its search for ammolite. Years ago, it developed a side business of collecting and supplying authentic fossils from countries all around the world. The company has a close partnership with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta. and, at Korite’s Calgary office, experts can often be found painstakingly reassembling dinosaur skeletons or packing and labelling fossils for delivery to museums and private collectors around the globe.

Maull says Korite is an Alberta success story — a 100 per cent Canadian-owned company that creates local employment and markets a one-of-a-kind Alberta product around the globe. He says it’s time for the company to bring itself and its rare, exotic, multicoloured gemstones further into the spotlight.

“It was the best-kept secret in Alberta. People in the Caribbean know more about us than people in downtown Calgary,” Maull says. “There’s definitely room for market growth.”